Blackfoot Confederacy

The Blackfoot Confederacy or Niitsitapi (ᖹᐟᒧᐧᒣᑯ, meaning "original people") is the collective name of three First Nationband governments in the provinces of Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia. It is also a Native Americantribe in Montana, United States. There are three tribes in Canada, the Siksika ("Blackfoot"), the Kainai or Kainah ("Many Chiefs") and the Northern Piegan ("Poor Robes") or Peigan or Pikuni, and one tribe in the United States: the Southern Piegan ("Poor Robes") or Pikuni in Montana.

Historically, the member peoples of the Confederacy were nomadic bison hunters and trout fishermen, who ranged across large areas of the northern Great Plains of Western North America, specifically the semi-aridshortgrass prairie ecological region. They followed the bison herds as they migrated between what are now the United States and Canada, as far north as the Bow River. In the first half of the 18th century, they acquired horses and firearms from white traders and their Cree and Assiniboine go-betweens. The Blackfoot used these to expand their territory at the expense of neighboring tribes. Now riding horses, the Blackfoot and other Plains tribes could also extend the range of their buffalo hunts.